It's a most unpleasant story that I'm about to tell,
About the fatal boat ride we all remember so well.
The day we loaded up words cannot express
The agonies that we suffered you can never guess.
Although we're not complaining-we'll take it like a man
But we will always remember when we're back home again.
When they shoved us in that hole we thought our time had come
But not a sound was uttered and everything was mum.
That sea of stricken faces that we saw down below
We cannot express our feelings but we won't forget, I know.
We climbed down the ladder below the water line
And Jerry was riding up on top where everything was fine.
A prayer was on our lips. I know no hypocrites were there
The sweat rolled off our bodies, all were stripped down bare.
Your husband, son or sweetheart was maybe in there, too
Be did he complain, no sir, his thoughts were still on you.
If I can spare you torture I won't say a word
Everyone must have thought the same for not a sound was heard.
A little drink of water doesn't mean much to you
And a ray of fresh sunshine or a sky of velvet blue.
But take them all away, folks, and their value is very high
That's what happened on that boat and we were all prepared to die.
For forty-eight hours of hell on earth we rode the stormy sea
Ten men were crowded into a space where one man ought to be.
We suffered torture and hunger but we didn't hear a sigh
The stronger prayed for courage; the weaker prayed to die.
Although we're not complaining we'll take it like real men
But we'll always remember when we're back home again.
One prisoner weaker than the rest who just could stand no more
Jumped overboard that stormy night and tried to swim ashore.
But wait a minute, what was that? The silence broken by a shot
A watery grave in the Baltic Sea that was the poor prisoner's lot.
So when you start complaining and your pleasures seem so few
Just think of the boys from Stalag VI and what we all went through.
So buck up, that's the spirit, and when this war is done
We'll all come marching home again without our pack and gun.
